Tango Province (丹後国)
List of provinces/San-indo/Tango Province
Tango Province, located in Sanin-do, was one of the provinces administered by the Ryo-sei (administrative codes). The province corresponds to the northern part of present-day Kyoto Prefecture. It is also called Hokutan or Okutan. Its status under the Engishiki (a book of laws and regulation compiled during the Engi era) was Kingoku, meaning near province, in the Kokushi-Kokutokyu-kubun category.
History
Some believe that during the Kofun period the province prospered along the Takeno-gawa River and had its own kingdom (see also "Tango Kingdom Hypothesis"). Tanba-gun (later Naka-gun) is believed to have been the center of the kingdom when, in the seventh century, Tamba Province was established as one of the provinces administered by the Ryo-sei.
The five districts of Kasa-gun, Yosa-gun, Tamba-gun, Takeno-gun and Kumano-gun in the north of Tanba Province were separated from the province on April 3, 713, and thereby formed Tango Province.
In the middle ages, the Isshiki clan (a branch of the Ashikaga clan) entered the territory, after which they governed the entire Tango Province throughout almost all of the Muromachi period. However, their governance structures are unknown today. The Isshiki clan, which had served as Kyushu Tandai (regional officers to oversee the administration of Kyushu), would probably have stayed in Kyoto and appointed powerful local families as Shugodai to rule the province. Based on the fact that the Shugo Yoshihide ISSHIKI was assaulted and driven to suicide by a powerful local family in 1498 around the onset of the Sengoku (Warring States) period, apparently the Isshiki clan did not have strong control over the province. Some of the Isshiki clan survived through the Sengoku period for a fairly long time, but in July 1579 Yusai HOSOKAWA defeated the Isshiki clan and thereafter controlled Tango Province. After the Battle of Sekigahara, Takatomo KYOGOKU was awarded the title of Tango no Kami, whereby all of Tango Province (a domain of 123,000 koku) and Tango Province became the territory of the land-owning daimyo, the Kyogoku clan.
Background of bunkoku (separation of the province)
The northern part of the region, and seemingly the center (including Tanba-gun and Tanba-go), was not included in Tanba Province but was instead separated to form Tango Province when the former was first established as one of the provinces administered by the Ryo-sei; this could be explained by the assumption that the central area of Tanba Province had been incorporated into the southern part of Tanba Province (a part of Tanba Province after the separation of Tango Province) from Tanba-gun in the north. A provincial monastery and nunnery were built in Kuwata-gun in the south, and it is known that Kuwata-gun became the center of Tanba Province during the Nara period.
Additionally, the reason that Tanba Province after the separation was not named 'Tanzen Province' after Tango Province would be that, unlike the previous principles of splitting a province evenly (e.g., the split of Kibi into Bizen, Bichu and Bingo), in the principles used for its separation (713) a portion of the original province was separated and only the portion was given a new name (e.g., the separation of Mimasaka from Bizen). It is also believed that, despite being separated from Tanba Province, the name Tango (pronounced as 'Tanihanomichinoshiri') was kept and a new provincial name was not given, because the region was originally in Tanba and the word 'Taniha' was intentionally kept as "Tanihanomichinoshiri."
Ancient provincial offices, Ichinomiya, etc. The Wamyoruiju-sho and Shugai-sho indicate that ancient provincial offices were located in Kasa-gun. They would probably have been in what is now Maizuru City.
However, in the Setsu-yo-shu derived from the Ekirin-bon, the offices are described as being in Yosa-gun. It is assumed that the offices were in Fuchu, Miyazu City.
The Engishiki Jimmyo-Cho (a list of shrines) contains information on seven gods and six grand shrines, as well as 58 gods and 58 small shrines, thus totaling 65 gods and 64 shrines.
The six grand shrines are listed below, and five of them (excluding Takeno-jinja Shrine) belong to Myojin-taisha Shrine:
Okawa-jinja Shrine in Kasa-gun (Maizuru City)
Kono-jinja Shrine in Yosa-gun (Miyazu City)
Omushi-jinja Shrine in Yosa-gun (Yosano-cho), (Yosano-cho, Yosa-gun)
Shomushi-jinja Shrine in Yosa-gun (Yosano-cho. Yosa-gun)
Omiyame-jinja Shrine (two gods) in Tanba-gun (Kyotango City)
Takeno-jinja Shrine in Takeno-gun (Kyotango City)
It is believed that the Ichinomiya (first shrine) was Kono-jinja Shrine and the Ninomiya (second shrine) was Omiyame-jinja Shrine. It is not clear which shrine is the sosha--one enshrining several gods of the shrines in the region--but some believe that Kono-jinja Shrine could have been the sosha as well.